AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



large, medium, and small seeds, all clean and 

 all capable of germinating, but the larger giving 

 promise of the better flowers, and these latter 

 only do I use on my beds. With some seeds 

 sieving alone will not serve to separate them from 

 the chaff. This is the case with annual Coreop- 

 sis amongst others, and here, having cleaned the 

 seed as far as possible with the sieves, I place 

 them in a shallow tin box and, blowing gently 

 on the mass, easily dislodge the lighter chaff. 

 This chaff, of course, does no real harm to 

 the seeds, except that if kept for a time the 

 chaff is more apt to gather moisture, sponge- 

 like, and thus prove injurious, and also if you 

 allow the chaff to remain it is quite possible 

 that one portion of your bed may be sown 

 with chaff alone. 



You will need a small brush to clean out your 

 boxes and sieves ; an ordinary flat paint brush, 

 about three-fourths of an inch broad, will serve 

 the purpose. Use it freely and carefully to pre- 

 vent your seed getting mixed. 



When your seeds are cleaned, put them in the 

 envelopes provided, marking them distinctly 

 with the name of the species, and its shape and 

 color, if in any way peculiar, together with the 



256 



